ANOTHER TILE POT (WAP # 10; Istanbul)

Once again, thanks to multiple interruptions & computer crises....  it has taken me all week to complete one tiny little A4 sized weekly art project!

And once again, I have focused on a single pot shape found in amidst the wonderful foliage-oriented tiles that enhance Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.

Using a sketch completed last week, I leapt straight into designing for this week's art exercise.

Folding an A4 piece of printer paper in half length wise, I used my little sketch as a guideline for the shape outline of the pot. After drawing it in with pencil & then going over it with a thick black pen,  I then traced it onto the other side, revealing a beautifully symmetrical pot!

I could have worked out my design for the pot decorations in my workbook... but given the stop-start nature of my week, I chose to play with design ideas directly onto the pot shape itself.  With  frequent use of the eraser & my my circle stencils, I eventually came up with a design that could be worked in contemporary reverse applique.

The choice of fabrics was particularly critical, as I didn't aim for a bold pot this week, I wanted something that looked more intricate .  As luck would have it, I had a piece of curtain fabric in the same pattern as last week's background, but in a different colour combination. This serendipitous find was an excellent starting point for working out my colour range.

Once cut, ironed & the design transferred, it was time to machine sew the outlines in.  Then I was ready for the fun part...time to let the cutting back begin.

Here's how it went...

Before cutting back the second layer, I chose to paint some outlines before cutting away from them.  the reason for this was that I wanted to get the interwoven effect & the cutting alone wouldn't have achieved that.  Once dry, out came the scissors again...

Each stage of this process of cutting back has been fun, because each fabric brought a completely different 'look' to the piece as it was revealed.  By the time I was cutting back to reveal the background, I realised that I had somehow put more fabric layers in than I'd planned!  I'd clearly been contemplating one over another, gone off to deal with the stuff of life, come back & just included both fabrics!

Just as I felt that this bold patterned background didn't really work for last week's exercise, it hasn't worked brilliantly here either.  Having said that, it does give the effect of being part of a bigger intertwining pattern, which fits with the original source of inspiration.

I am very pleased with my pot, all things considered & am grateful for an opportunity where I could just focus on one small, yet important feature of the stunning tiles of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.